Abstract:
Transplanting rice seedlings by Rice machine transplanter is one of the labour-saving
technology in rice establishments. In mechanically transplanted rice, delayed
transplantation is common practice, resulting in a significant reduction in grain yield.
As a result, determining measures to compensate for the grain production loss is
crucial for rice cultivation technology improvement. A field experiment was conducted
to investigate the impact of different seedlings age on the growth and yield of machine
transplanted rice at Rice Research Station, Paranthan, during 2017/18 Maha. Rice
variety of Bg406 was transplanted with 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22 days-old
seedlings by machine transplanter with a plot size of 4.5 m x 5.7m under RCBD design
with four replicates. The plant height, tiller density, leaf area index, panicle density,
panicle length, the weight of 1000 grains and grain yield were obtained and
statistically analyzed through ANOVA and means separation was done by Duncan's
Multiple Range test at the 5 % probability level. Results revealed that the transplanting
of sixteen days old seedlings recorded the highest number of tillers significantly at
harvest (281.25 m-2), leaf area index (3.663 m-2), and the number of panicles at
harvest (242.25 m-2), and grain yield (5.065 t/ha). This study concluded that a plant
seedling age of sixteen day-olds could be considered the optimum planting age for
machine transplanted rice crops for the variety of Bg406 in the Northern region.
